Fusion Drives In An Atmosphere?

Throughout the show and books, we see spacecraft being used within a planetary atmosphere. For example, in the show we see launch vehicles used by Avasarala to travel off-Earth. We also see traditional space vessels being capable of operating within the atmospheres of various Earth-like planets throughout the franchise.

My question is, would fusion propulsion technology likely be powerful enough to act as the primary drive for surface to orbit launches? I've been asking my buddy ChatGPT about the expected capabilities of fusion propulsion and he says that while fusion could be extremely efficient, it might not be powerful enough to launch a craft from Earth's surface. It's a cool detail that the books described the Rocinante as needing to be retrofitted for planetary landings, but is it ever spelled out in the show or books how ships operate within an atmosphere?